On the way down from Guptkashi, he had stopped with his bus and was calmly trying to deal with another situation when locals and reporters gathered around.
The bus they had hired to carry them to Rishikesh had stalled on a narrow strip of a dirt track. Inside were about 35 people, mostly men and women in their 60s. But not all of whom were part of his original group of 40 pilgrims.
The nightmare for Prajapati, who said his age was "48-50" years, and his fellow travellers from Shahjahanpur district in Madhya Pradesh began with the cloud burst on June 15. They were in Kedarnath when disaster struck.
As the first boulders came loose from the surrounding hills, the pilgrims got divided. Some of them were with Prajapati. Literally carrying the elderly through the cascading water and rocks, he managed to take 11 of them to elevated ground. He saw two women being swept before his eyes.
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They left Kedarnath that day itself. That was June 18. On the way back, they found three other members of their party who had got separated.
"After the cloudburst, we stayed put in the jungles surrounding Kedarnath for two days. The first day went in just trying to find a safe, dry place to take shelter in. But there was nowhere we could hide," Prajapati said.
"While we were waiting there at the mercy of the elements, a gang of people arrived. Not pilgrims, but goons armed with knives.
"They made me give up about Rs 25,000 in cash which I had with me. They also looted the rest of the elderly persons with me. What can I say when people act with such greed? I was helpless," Prajapati said, his voice breaking and a few drops of tears, which he had been fighting for long, streaming down his face.